Tunisian Campaign
The Tunisian Campaign consisted of a series of battles that took place between November 1942 and May 1943. The Allies consisted of the British Commonwealth Forces, the Americans and the Free French Forces. The campaign commenced with initial success for the German and Italian forces, with the Italians securing Gabes and Tebourba and the Germans capturing Gafsa on 21 November. The Axis armies were commanded by Generals Erwin Rommel Giovanni Messe. The Allied ground commanders included Generals Harold Alexander, Bernard Montgomery and Dwight D. Eisenhower. General Tedder was Air Force commander, and Admiral Cunningham was the commander of the naval forces. Once the Operation Torch landings took place and the Vichy French Forces defending Morocco and Algeria had been defeated, the Allied armies raced to the Tunisian capital. If they did not capture the port of Tunis in time, Tunisia would require much hard fighting to defeat the Axis forces assembling there under General von Arnim. The initial Allied attacking force in Tunisia comprised the British 78th Division with two brigades and Blade Force totalliing only 12, 300 men. With bases close to Tunis, the Luftwaffe quickly established air superiority, with Allied ground forces coming under regular attack from fighters and dive-bombers. In the Tunisian fighting, the Luftwaffe lost 2,422 aircraft The rugged Tunisian terrain would allow the Axis defenders to hold out for a considerable long time. The Allied commanders planned to advance along two main roads that lead from Algeria into the Tunis. They would have to capture both Bizerte and the Tunis, before the Tunisian Campaign could be declared over. The main Allied attack began on 22 December, when they attacked from their main position in Medjez el bab. The Axis forces that were already in Tunis managed to repel the British from taking Longstop Hill. The position became unreachable and the Allies were forced to retreat to Medjez el bab. On 7 May Tunis was captured and six days later fighting in the Tunisian Campaign ceased as the surviving Axis units surrendered. Sidi Bou Zid On 30 January 1943, the German 21st Panzer and three Italian divisions from von Arnim's 5th Panzer Army attacked the Free Fench Forces near Faïd. General Fredendall did not respond to the French request to send reinforcements in the form of tanks from 1st Armored Division, and the French defenders were overrun. Several belated counterattacks were organized, but all of these were beaten off by the 5th Panzer Army. After three days of fighting, the Allied forces withdrew to new defence lines at Sbeitla. On 14 February, as part of Operation Frühlingswind (Spring Wind), von Arnim ordered four armoured battle groups against the US 34th Infantry Division's 168th Regimental Combat Team and 1st Armored Division's Combat Command A. The next day, the remaining US armour was defeated, leaving isolated infantry units defending hills tops. Combat Command C was ordered to counterattack, but were repelled with heavy losses. On the evening of 15 February, three of the Axis battlegroups advanced to Sbeitla, overrunning the remains of CCA and CCC, with the battlegroups encountering Combat Command B outsidef Sbeitla. With the help of air support, CCB held firm, but the ground attack missions stopped and the defenders abandoned Sbeitla around midday on 17 February. To the south, in Operation Morgenluft (Morning Air), an Italian 1st Army battlegroup made up from the remains of the Afrika Korps (under Karl Bülowius) had advanced toward Gafsa at dusk on 15 February, to find the town deserted. By the afternoon of 17 February, Rommel's troops had occupied Feriana and Thelepte, forcing the evacuation on the morning of 18 February of Thelepte airfield, the main air base in British First Army's southern sector. Kasserine Pass On 19 February, Comando Supremo issued orders for Rommel to attack through the Kasserine and Sbiba passes toward Thala and Le Kef to threaten First Army's flank. Rommel's original proposal was for a limited but concentrated attack through Kasserine to confront the US IInd Corps at Tébessa and gain vital supplies from the US dumps there. Although he was to have the 10th and 21st Panzer Divisions paced under his command, Rommel was concerned that the new plan would weaken his forces and expose his flanks to attack. On 19 February 1943, Rommel, having now been given complete control of the 10th and 21st Panzer Divisions, the Afrika Korps battlegroup as well as General Messe's forces on the Mareth defences (now renamed Italian 1st Army), launched what would become known as the Battle of Kasserine Pass. Planning to overrun the inexperienced US defenders with an armoured attack, he first sent the light armour from the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion to reconnoitre the pass. Colonel Alexander Stark's Stark Force, a brigade group made from US and French units, was responsible for the defence of the pass. It had not had time to organise a proper defence, but was able to direct heavy artillery fire which brought the Afrika Korps battlegroup's leading mechanized units to a halt. Before they could resume attacks, infantry was called in to be sent up into the high ground and eliminate threat from artillery observers. Meanwhile, a battlegroup under Hans-Georg Hildebrand, including tanks from 21st Panzer attacked Sbiba Pass, but were bought to a halt, by the 1st Guards Brigade and 18th Regimental Combat Team, which had strong field and anti-tank gun defences and were reinforced by two infantry regiments from the US 34th Infantry Division. On the morning of 20 February, the bitter hand-to-hand fighting in the high grounds above Kasserine continued, while the Afrika Korps battlegroup, reinforced by an armoured battalion from the 131 Armoured Division Centauro and the 5th and 7th Bersaglieri Regiments and more artillery, prepared for another push through the pass once the 10th Panzer Division battlegroup had arrived from Sbeitla. The German attack made slow progress, but fresh reinforcements in the form of the 5th Bersaglieri Regiment early that afternoon, triggered a collapse in the US forward defences. Having pushed through the Kasserine Pass on the afternoon of 20 February, an armoured battalion from the Centauro Division headed south towards Tébessa, meeting little or no resistance. Following them came the von Broich battlegroup from 10th Panzer, which turned north onto the road to attack Thala, but they where halted by a regimental armoured group from 26th Armoured Brigade (Gore Force). Their tanks outgunned, Gore Force sustained heavy losses but bought time for Nick Force, a composite force from British 6th Armoured Division, based around 26th Armoured Brigade Group with extra infantry and artillery (which Anderson had ordered the previous day to leave the Kesra area to bolster the Thala defences) to prepare defensive positions further up the road. Meanwhile, Fredendall had sent 1st Armored Division's CCB to meet the threat to Tébessa. By 1.00 pm on 21 February, von Broich's battlegroup were in contact with the dug-in 26th Armoured Brigade Group on the Thala road and making slow progress. Rommel took direct control of the attack and forced the defences by 4pm. However, 26th Brigade Group were able to withdraw in reasonable order to the next, final, defensive line in front of Thala. Fighting at this position started at 7pm and continued at close quarters for three hours with neither side able to gain a decisive advantage. Nick Force had taken a heavy beating and did not expect to be able to hold out the next day. However, during the night a further 48 artillery pieces from U.S. 9th Infantry Division arrived. On the morning of 22 February, as Von Broich prepared to launch his attack, his front was hit by a devastating artillery barrage. Surprisingly, Rommel told Von Broich to regroup and assume a defensive posture, so surrendering the initiative. Meanwhile, the 21st Panzer battlegroup outside Thala was making no progress. Two battalions of Bersaglieri soldiers are recorded by the 23 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery to have assisted in the attack against Thala, but were repelled. Further south, the Afrika Korps battlegroup on the road to Tébessa had been halted on 21 February by CCB's armour and artillery dug in at the foot of Djebel Hamra. An attempt to outflank them during the night of the 21 February had resulted in the capture of an abandoned hill. A renewed attack on 23 February was beaten back and the attacks against Thala and Tebessa called off in the afternoon. In a dispirited meeting on 22 February with Kesselring, Rommel argued that faced with stiffening defences and the news that the Eighth Army's lead elements had finally reached Medenine, only a few kilometres from the Mareth Line, he should call off the attack and withdraw to support the Mareth defences, hoping that the Kasserine attack had caused enough damage to deter any offensive action from the west in the immediate future. Kesselring was keen for the offensive to continue but finally agreed that evening and the Comando Supremo formally terminated the operation. The Axis forces from Kasserine reached the Mareth line on 25 February. Medenine On 17 February, the British Eighth Army reached the Mareth defences line, and commenced patrolling on the 26th. On 3 March, an Italian infantry battalion from the 10th Bersaglieri Regiment supported by 30 tanks counterattacked the British, but lost half its strength killed to machine-gun fire. According to Associated Press war correspondent Don Whitehead: Last night three companies of Italians followed by 30 tanks and lorried infantry attacked the Highlander's advance screen. The Jocks “mowed 'em down”—and didn't lose a man. The tanks and infantry scurried back to the safety of the hills. Half the Italians were killed.Combat Reporter: Don Whitehead's World War II Diary and Memoirs, pg. 125, Fordham Univ Press, 2006 On 6 March, three German armoured and two light divisions, with supporting nine Italian divisions, launched Operation Capri, an in the direction of Medenine. British artillery fire was intense, beating off the Axis attack and knocking out 55 panzers. With the failure of Capri, Rommel decided that the only way to save his divisions was to evacuate them. He therefore left Tunisia on 9 March to see Hitler at his headquarters in the Ukraine, to try to convince him to abandon Tunisia. Hitler refused, and Rommel was sent on sick leave. Von Arnim assumed command of the Afrika Korps. Mareth Line General Montgomery launched a major attack, Operation Pugilist, against the Mareth Line on the night of 19/20 March. Elements of the British 50th Infantry Division penetrated the defences and established a bridgehead west of Zarat on the night of 20/21 March, but a determined counterattack by the 15th Panzer Division forced the British back and stabilized the Axis defences on 22 March. A battalion from the Green Jackets, under lieutenant-colonel Derek Anthony Seagrim, successfully took and held its objective thereby allowing the British attack to be renewed. From the start his battalion, was subjected to heavy artillery, machine-gun and mortar fire, and it appeared more than likely that the battalion attack would fail. Realizing this, the British commanding officer placed himself at the head of his men, personally killing or capturing 20 Germans but was mortally wounded in the process. For his valour in the attack, Seagrim was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.Victoria Cross for attack on the Mareth Line On 26 March, General Brian Horrocks' Xth Corps drove around the Matmata Hills, captured the Tebaga Gap and the town of El Hamma. This flanking movement made most of the Mareth Line untenable. The following day, German and Italian units managed to stop Horrock's advance with well-placed anti-tank guns, and commenced withdrawing. Within 48 hours, the defenders of the Mareth Line marched 60 kilometres northwest and established new defensive positions at Wadi Akarit near Gabès. El Guettar The Batlle of El Guettar, was fought between the Germans (under General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim) and Italians (under General Giovanni Messe), against the US 2nd Army Corps (under General George S. Patton). The Battle took place in the El Guettar Valley in Tunisia. The main goal of this battle was for the Axis to push the Allies away from the Mareth Line and keep them from reaching Gabés. The battle started with the Germans moving their tanks and artillery against the Americans. The Americans were able to destroy enough of the German armour to force the Afrika Korps to commence withdrawing, but the British attempts to capture the Mareth line failed. However, Patton then saw an opportunity to obtain a breakthough, and started pushing armour and infantry into to Gabés from El Guettar. The Americans started to gain ground at El Guettar, but German armoured attacks from the 10th and 21st Panzer Divisions pushed them back from their initial gains. A stalemate ensued, with the Americans unable to push the Italians defending two important hills. Eventually, the Free French Forces captured El Hamma on 28 March, and the Axis forces were forced to abandon Gabès. The Italians in the form of Raggruppamento Sahariano (under General Alberto Mannerini) had fought most determinedly in defence of the El Hamma Ridge: The enemy positions seemed impregnable, and, in fact, the Italians manning them held out for three days ... Rommel, in a last desperate effort replaced the Italians with crack German troops. Hand-to-hand fighting followed, but the enemy, finally fell back into the ravine, leaving many dead behind.Fighting French Troops' Part Advance in Advance on Gabes Enfidaville After the collapse of the Gafsa-El Guettar-Maknassy positions, Geneal Messe withdrew the Italian 1st Army to Enfidaville. The 2nd New Zealand Division and 1st British Armoured Division pursued the retreating Germans 225 km (140 mi) northward into strong defensive positions in the hills west of Enfidaville. From this point on, the battle became one of attrition. On the night of 5-6 April, during the 2nd Gurkha Rifles attack on the Rass-Ez-Zouai feature, captain Subadar Lalhahadur Thapa, second-in-command of D Company, rushed to seize the path leading up to the top of the German fortified position. Several German posts were dealt with kukris and bayonets. Just below the summit, Subedar Lalbahadur, now with only two supporting riflemen, killed several more German defenders before the remainder fled. The gallantry of the Gurkha officer led to the capture of the strongpoint and his bravery was recognized with the immediate award of the Victoria Cross.Khukuri House The Italian 1st San Marco Marines Regiment, well dug in at Wadi Akarit, fought well, but the British attackers broke through the Italian defences on 6 and 7 April, although casualties in the 6th Green Howards were severe, with eight officers and NCO's and one hundred and eighteen other ranks killed. Corporal Bill Cheall recalled: When we were about ten yards away we had reached the top of the slit trench and we killed any of the survivors. It was no time for pussy footing, we were intoxicated with rage and had to kill them to pay for our fallen pal.The War of a Green Howard, 1939 - 1945. Bill Cheall's Story Takrouna village was another difficult objective in the fighting, a stone outcrop nearly 1,000 feet high. On the night of 19 April, the 2nd New Zealand Division attacked under the cover of heavy artillery fire, but the 28th Maori Battalion suffered heavy casualties in the failed attack, especially among the officers. The Italian defenders in the form of two battalions from the Trieste and Folgore Divisions put up a solid resistance for another day and night before the two New Zealand brigades, with extra artillery support, finally captured Takrouna and surrounding positions. An Allied war correspondent reported that only 326 defenders were captured and that the Italians had fought very hard: The fight atop the 600-foot peak finally ended at 8 p.m. last night. At that hour the first real Italian defenders the British had met surrendered in a body, 326 of them. They gave up only because their ammunition gave out. These Italians were tough, trained killers who didn't feel faint when stout British troopers flung their comrades over the cliffs to clear the road up the side of the steep peak and reach the village atop it. They stood, fired and fought back and when they gave up they said the allies wouldn't get to Tunis. They holed up in caves and crevices of the slopes and had to be dragged out before their machine guns and mortars were silenced.British and Italians Battle To Death on Top Bloody Peak, The Bend Bulletin, Oregon, 24 April 1943 During 20, 21 and 22 April, General Giuseppe Falugi, commander of the Pistoia Division delivered several counterattacks, but they were defeated and the British succeeded in holding the village of Enfidaville."This part of the front was defended by the Italian Pistoia Division, which made several counterattacks during the ensuing day. These were continued on the 21st and 22nd, but the British held the village." Close Support in Tunisia, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Williams Thompson, The Field Artillery Journal, July 1943 During the fighting in April, it was observed by General Harold Alexander in a despatch to Winston Churchill that "the Italians fought particularly well, outdoing the Germans in line with them".Decisive Campaigns of the Second World War, John Gooch, pg.95, Routledge, 2012 American soldiers also won much praise for their determination and experience gained in the fighting on 23-24 April, when the 2nd Battalion from the 18th Infantry, attacked a German stronghold three times before General von Arnim finally quit. After nightfall 1 May the Germans withdrew into Mateur. But two days later American tanks drove the defenders out of the town By 2 May, both sides had fought themselves to exhaustion; but whereas von Arnim had exhausted his reserves, General Alexander had still fresh reinforcements in hand, including those of the 8th Army which was still uncommitted to a major attack. Fall of Bizerte and Tunis As the Axis' started running out of supplies, because of air and sea attacks (especially from Malta), the Allies achieved a considerable build-up. The main attack was to be at the strategically important Hill 609The hill, almost a mountain, was the key to the German defensive line facing II Corps. Von Arnim used it for artillery fire and observation, and from it the Germans could prevent movement by both the 1st Division to the south and the 9th Division to the north. From Hill 609 Tunis could be seen. It was protected not only by its own height and artillery but by fire from nearby high ground, which gave the Germans a cross fire on the slopes heading up to it. Altogether, Hill 609 was the most difficult objective in Tunisia. The Supreme Commander, Stephen E. Ambrose, Page 186, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2012, with the US 34th Division Corps tasked with capturing the high ground before pushing into Bizerte. The First Army was to attack Tunis and the Eighth Army was going to attack from the north. The attack began on 22 April, with the IXth corps striking first. The British forces were able to push through and capture Longstop Hill on 26 April. On 30 April, the 34th Division took Hill 609, and the way was open to Bizerte. The Germans counterattacked, but were unable to retake the position. The Eighth Army was encountering stiff resistance, so General Alexander pulled them out and moved them up the First Army sector. After he regrouped them, along with some other divisions, Alexander launched the final British attack on 6 May. The British pushed forward and were able to go capture Tunis while the Americans captured Bizerte that same day, On 13 May, the remaining Axis defenders surrendered. The Allies had won the North Africa Campaign. The Allied casualties were 76,020 (including 18,738 US casualtiesCASUALTIES 90,000 18,738 in North Africa) , while the Axis suffered about 300,000 casualties. Over 230,000 German and Italian troops were taken as prisoners of war, including most of the Afrika Korps. More than 1,000 guns and 250 tanks were captured. References Category:1943